Re: XML storing and management

From: Bob Badour <bbadour_at_pei.sympatico.ca>
Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:07:50 -0300
Message-ID: <46fbe33a$0$4072$9a566e8b@news.aliant.net>

Jan Hidders wrote:
> On 27 sep, 16:27, Bob Badour <bbad..._at_pei.sympatico.ca> wrote:
>

>>Jan Hidders wrote:
>>
>>>On 27 sep, 02:19, JOG <j..._at_cs.nott.ac.uk> wrote:
>>
>>>>Ok, so why is it exactly cdt, despite the inherent flaws of a
>>>>hierarchical model such as XML, it has seen such widespread uptake?
>>
>>>It's all hype, of course.
>>
>>>Btw., what fundamental flaws?
>>
>>Well, let's see... How about we start with: "The inability to re-order
>>the data without changing meaning and without destroying information." ?

>
> "Hierarchical models such as XML" are not necessarily ordered-only
> data models. In fact most proposals for semistructured data models
> before XML weren't.
>
> But even in XML this is not a big problem. Whether reordering destroys
> information or not depends on your interpretation of the data. If you
> send me an XML document and in addition tell me that certain parts
> represent sets then I can reorder them without destroying any
> information. The fact that XML is an ordered data model only implies
> that it *might* destroy informaton, not that it *must*.

That's a nit. If one cannot always safely reorder, then one cannot safely reorder.

[snip] Received on Thu Sep 27 2007 - 12:07:50 CDT